


Gather Near To Us

by IntrovertedRavenclaw



Series: Malec Holiday Sickfics [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec and Magnus are great parents, Caring Alec Lightwood, M/M, Sick Alec Lightwood, Sick Magnus Bane, Sickfic, the kids are sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 06:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16928025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntrovertedRavenclaw/pseuds/IntrovertedRavenclaw
Summary: Max gets a cold and it all goes downhill from there. Tis the season for a Lightwood-Bane family epidemic.





	Gather Near To Us

**Author's Note:**

> First part in a Malec holiday sickfic/fluff series. I'll try to update as frequently as possible before Christmas but I really don't have a solid update schedule. Just some fluff to get everyone through finals and to get into the holiday spirit. :)

"Max, buddy, time to wake up." Alec gently shakes his son to wake him up. "Let's get you ready for school."

Max shoves Alec away. "Don't want to."

"Why not?" Alec asks. Normally Max, who is now four years old, loves going to preschool at the Institute. "What's wrong?" 

Max blinks his blue eyes open blearily. "I just feel yucky." 

Frowning, Alec places his palm on his son's forehead. "Uh oh. I think you really are sick."

Max groans in despair, reaching for Alec's hands. "Lay with me." 

"I can't, Max, I have to get your brother up." Alec reasons. "I'll be right back. Can you try to get some more sleep?"

Max nods glumly, snuggling into his blankets while Alec goes to wake up Rafe. He finds his older son already up and getting ready and Magnus helping him get his wild hair under control. 

"Max isn't feeling well," Alec says. "I think he has a fever." 

"I'll go check on him," Magnus replies, finishing combing Rafe's hair. 

"Will Max be okay?" Rafe asks, concerned. 

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Alec assures him. "He just feels a little yucky."

Alec returns to Max's bedroom, Rafe in tow, and finds Magnus taking Max's temperature. 

"What's the damage?" Alec asks.

"101.8," Magnus answers, looking at the thermometer after pulling it out of Max's mouth. "Poor baby."

"What hurts, Max?" Alec asks gently, kneeling known next to his son's bed. 

"Everything," Max moans dramatically. He gives a raspy cough and sniffles. 

"Does your throat hurt?" Alec says, still trying to get an idea of what they're dealing with. _Stomach bug? Flu? Just a cold?_ Max nods. "What about your belly?"

Max shakes his head. "My head hurts. And my ears."

He starts to tear up and Alec gathers him into his arms. "Hey, it's okay. You'll be okay. I think you just have a cold, baby." 

"I'll call his teachers and let them know he's sick," Magnus says. "I'll also see if Jace can get Rafe to the Institute today for training."

"I can do that," Alec volunteers. Max starts crying harder in his arms.

"You'd better stay with Blueberry," Magnus says. "I'll let Jace know you're home with Max today, and I can take Rafe to the Institute before one of my client visits this morning. You may want to see if Isabelle or Jace can get some medicine since I won't be home until later tonight." He stops to look at Rafe. "Ready to go?"

"Yup," says Rafe. 

Magnus kisses Alec. "I love you."

"Love you," Alec smiles as Magnus and Rafe portal off to the Institute for Rafe's training. 

Alec manages to get Max to stop crying and sets him up on the couch with a few of his favorite blankets, some toys, and a sippy cup of juice. 

"You need to rest, okay?" Alec says. "If you nap a lot today, you'll feel better tomorrow."

"I don't want to nap," Max says sadly.

"I know, buddy, but you'll get better faster if you do." Alec sits down on the couch beside him. "I don't like to rest when I get sick either, but it's better if you do."

Max coughs, snuggling into Alec's chest. "Hold me."

Alec lets Max curl up on his lap and wraps his arms around his son. Max sniffles and coughs all morning, and Alec's heart aches from looking at how miserable he is. 

"Are you bored?" Alec asks after a few hours of doing paperwork while his son drifts in and out of sleep on his lap. Max nods. "How about a movie?"

Max sneezes. "Christmas movie?"

"Sure. You hungry?" Alec turns the TV on and turns on. the first Christmas movie he comes across, which happens to be _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_. "It's about lunchtime. What do you feel like eating?"

"Candy," Max says, matter-of-factly. 

"No," Alec counters.

"What do you eat when you get sick?" Max asks. "I wanna be like Daddy."

Alec pauses. Magnus has told him that he's really a terrible patient when he's sick, the few times that he's actually been sick enough to need to be taken care of. Maybe telling Max about the time he worked straight through a nasty flu virus, still filling out reports when he wasn't shivering from the fever or throwing up, is not a good idea.

"How about chicken noodle soup?" Alec suggests, changing the subject. Max doesn't argue, so he goes into the kitchen, opens up a can of chicken noodle soup, and heats it up on the stove. He then ladles some soup into a small bowl for Max and brings it back out to the couch for him. "Here, buddy. Try not to spill."

Max falls asleep again as soon as he finishes his soup, all before the Grinch even steals Christmas. He's adorable, curled up around a blanket and a stuffed animal on the couch, sleeping peacefully. Alec gently lifts him off of the couch and carries him to his bed, tucking him in. 

In the few hours before Magnus and Rafe get home, Alec tidies up the loft, folding blankets and disinfecting every surface he can think of. He does not want to catch whatever is making his kid miserable, and he certainly does not want Rafe or Magnus to catch it either. 

\---

As Alec and Magnus are getting into bed, both of the boys come in and climb into their bed. 

"Can we sleep with you?" Max asks sweetly. 

Alec and Magnus exchange a look and they both give in immediately. 

"Sure," Magnus says. "Let's check your temperature, okay?" He summons a thermometer out of the air and shows Max how to hold it under his tongue. 

"Daddy," Rafe says quietly. "I don't feel good."

"Uh oh," Alec frowns. "Like what?"

His older son coughs pitifully. "My throat hurts and my nose is stuffy."

"That's not good," Magnus says, taking the thermometer from Max. "His fever went down a little, but he's still too hot." 

"I'm cold," Max protests. "I'm not too hot!"

"Your body is a big fat liar," Magnus retorts. 

"I'm going to take Rafe's temperature." Alec takes the thermometer from Magnus and brings it to the ensuite bathroom, rinsing the tip with soap and water, then he brings it back to his older son. "Put this under your tongue— like that— until you hear the little beep, okay?"

Rafe does, and Alec takes in his appearance. His eyes look glazed over and his cheeks are flushed; no getting around it, they now have two sick kids. 

"Oh, no." Alec sighs, reading Rafe's temperature. "That's a high fever. Poor baby."

Rafe gives a shaky sigh and lays down, curled up next to Magnus' chest. Max snuggles between Rafe and Alec, and Magnus and Alec both wrap their arms protectively around the boys. 

Alec meets Magnus' eyes, and they give each other silent support for what is probably going to be a long night with sick, miserable kids. 

Sure enough, Max cries through most of the night with an earache, and Rafe can't sleep because he coughs all night. Magnus tries to get Max to stop crying, using magic to try to ease his pain. Alec keeps refilling Rafe's glass of water and hands it to him whenever he can't stop coughing. By morning, they are all sleep-deprived and miserable. 

"Who knew a tiny virus," Magnus says, as he makes breakfast the next morning. "Could wreak so much havoc?"

Alec nods in silent agreement as he sips his coffee. The kids have been sick before, obviously, but they usually don't both get sick at the same time, and Alec is shocked at how quickly both of the boys came down with their illnesses. One second, both of them were fine, and the next, they were coughing and shivering with a fever. 

Magnus summons a plethora of medicine onto the counter. "They need some cough syrup, at the very least."

"Max's ears are still hurting him," Alec says. "and Rafe still has a high fever, so we should probably give him something for that." 

Magnus starts pouring the correct dosages of medicine.

"Here," Alec hands the little plastic cup of medicine to Rafe, who is bundled up in a blanket on the couch. "Swallow this. I know it's gross but it'll make you feel better."

Rafe does without too much complaint, though he gives a disgusted expression. 

"I know, I know," Alec hands him a cup of water to wash it down. "There, all done."

"So gross," Rafe complains. 

"You are going to feel so much better, I promise." Alec says, ruffling his son's hair. He smiles to himself when he watches Magnus coax the medicine into Max, on the other end of the couch. 

"Come on, Max," Magnus says. "Your brother took it. Swallow it and then you're all done."

Max finally does, albeit gagging and complaining about the taste until Magnus hands him a cup of water. 

"Good job, blueberry." Magnus smiles sympathetically. 

The rest of the day is spent watching movies and napping on the couch, while Alec and Magnus cuddle with Max and Rafe, who are both extra clingy on account of them both not feeling well.

\---

"Oh god," Alec mumbles when he wakes up, a few days later, and realizes that his throat aches and he can't breathe through his nose. Both kids had been down with bad colds the past few days, but Alec had naively thought that maybe, as a parent, he wouldn't catch it. But no such luck. The boys had been sleeping in his and Magnus' bed since they both started feeling poorly, so that can't have helped much.

"Alexander?" Magnus mumbles, rolling over and reaching over the two sleeping kids between them. He coughs and Alec groans.

"Don't tell me you have this too," Alec croaks

"I feel awful," Magnus confirms. "It hurts to swallow, and my muscles are made of cement."

"My head is killing me." Alec coughs.

Magnus reaches for the thermometer that is sitting on his nightstand— the one they've used for the boys for the past few days— and conjures up three more identical ones. "There. So we don't have to keep washing it."

"Stop using magic." Alec murmurs. "You'll exhaust yourself." He does take a thermometer from Magnus and takes his own temperature. "By the angel. This isn't good."

"How high is it?" Magnus asks, around a thermometer under his own tongue.

"100.6, which isn't terrible, but I definitely have a fever." Alec sighs. "Do you have a fever?"

"Not too high, but yes," Magnus answers. "Parents aren't supposed to get sick when their kids have colds. It's an unwritten rule." 

Alec is shaken by a painful fit of coughing, and Magnus sneezes when Rafe and Max both wake up. He had hoped that they would sleep for another few hours; it had been another rough night with none of them getting a lot of sleep. 

"Good morning, sweetheart." Magnus greets, through a stuffy nose and a raspy voice. 

Rafe yawns. "Papa, are you sick?"

Alec is still coughing, and Max sits up, looking distressed. 

"Daddy's sick!" He cries. 

"It's okay, boys." Alec gets out. "We'll be okay. How are you feeling?"

And of course, the little assholes are feeling better now and are back to their usual, energetic selves while Alec and Magnus barely have the energy to get out of bed. 

Alec figures that's just how it is when you're a parent. 

And honestly, as he sits on the couch and Max proudly brings him a cup of water (half of which he's already spilled on the carpet), he decides that he wouldn't have it any other way. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think? 
> 
> Feel free to leave prompts/suggestions for holiday-themed sickfics. :)


End file.
